Zonr

Author: Bodhi Baba

  • Our Journey from the “Primordial Ooze” into a “Vast Cosmic Dark” * – Step 6

    Our Journey from the “Primordial Ooze” into a “Vast Cosmic Dark” * – Step 6

    “Before we admitted the truth about our addiction, we knew only the darkness of denial. But when we surrendered  … a ray of light broke through the darkness, beginning our spiritual awakening.” (It Works, How & Why, p. 83)

     

    Try and describe one of your own “ray of light” moments out of the darkness of your spiritual awakening?

     

    Whispering Wind – Moby (6:06) 

    *Pale Blue Dot – Carl Sagan (4:00)  

    Ambient Flow in the Darkness of the Universe Meditation (9:50)

     

    We grow accustomed to the Dark

    – Emily Dickinson

    We grow accustomed to the Dark –
    When Light is put away –
    As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
    To witness her Goodbye –

    A Moment – We Uncertain step
    For newness of the night –
    Then – fit our Vision to the Dark –
    And meet the Road – erect –

    And so of larger – Darknesses –
    Those Evenings of the Brain –
    When not a Moon disclose a sign –
    Or Star – come out – within –

    The Bravest – grope a little –
    And sometimes hit a Tree
    Directly in the Forehead –
    But as they learn to see –

    Either the Darkness alters –
    Or something in the sight
    Adjusts itself to Midnight –
    And Life steps almost straight.

    Every Cloud Had A Silver Lining. :

    Thick and dark clouds sometimes obstruct the sun. When it happens, the surroundings darken. It is not a pleasant sight. But if we look at the clouds carefully we can see that their edges are tinted with a silvery glow. This glow tells us that the sun is somewhere there behind the clouds. As time passes, the clouds will move off and the sun will come out of it. This clever metaphor is used in the proverb to denote that sorrows and calamities are only momentary. Wherever there is sorrow, happiness will be somewhere nearby. Whenever there is shadow, light should be nearby. And whenever there is darkness, the bright light is near.

    The proverb teaches us not to lose hope in the hours of darkness and sorrow. It reminds us to be optimistic and hopeful. It tells us not to lose heart because it might be just when we are about to quit that victory reveals itself. Like the silver tint on the edges of the dark cloud, happiness always lurks behind the darkest hour. ‘The famous poet Shelley has expressed the idea in one of his poems – ‘The ode to west wind’ in which asks, ‘if winter comes, can spring be far behind?’

    Zonr blog on darkness

     

  • “Think like a Wise Man but Communicate in the Language of the People” – Step 11

    “Think like a Wise Man but Communicate in the Language of the People” – Step 11

    DO IT IN A WAY THAT WORKS FOR YOU – “… we communicate with our Higher Power in a way that is very tangible to us. OAs have been known to deliver prayer letters to God … . We’ve mailed them to our sponsor, put them in a can we labeled our “God Can,” made burnt offerings of them, hung them on a tree branch, or dropped them in a river.” (Overeaters Anon 12 & 12, p. 95)

    “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”

    – William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) Irish Poet

     

     

    What are some of the creative ways you’ve communicated with your HP, in the past?

     

     

    A Prayer for My Daughter

    W. B. Yeats, 1865 – 1939

    Once more the storm is howling, and half hid

    Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
    My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
    But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill
    Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
    Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
    And for an hour I have walked and prayed
    Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.

    I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
    And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
    And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
    In the elms above the flooded stream;
    Imagining in excited reverie
    That the future years had come,
    Dancing to a frenzied drum,
    Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.

    May she be granted beauty and yet not
    Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught,
    Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
    Being made beautiful overmuch,
    Consider beauty a sufficient end,
    Lose natural kindness and maybe
    The heart-revealing intimacy
    That chooses right, and never find a friend.

    Helen being chosen found life flat and dull

    And later had much trouble from a fool,
    While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray,
    Being fatherless could have her way
    Yet chose a bandy-leggèd smith for man.
    It’s certain that fine women eat
    A crazy salad with their meat
    Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.

    In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned;
    Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
    By those that are not entirely beautiful;
    Yet many, that have played the fool
    For beauty’s very self, has charm made wise,
    And many a poor man that has roved,
    Loved and thought himself beloved,
    From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.

    May she become a flourishing hidden tree
    That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
    And have no business but dispensing round
    Their magnanimities of sound,
    Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
    Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
    O may she live like some green laurel
    Rooted in one dear perpetual place.

    My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
    The sort of beauty that I have approved,
    Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
    Yet knows that to be choked with hate
    May well be of all evil chances chief.
    If there’s no hatred in a mind
    Assault and battery of the wind
    Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.

    An intellectual hatred is the worst,

    So let her think opinions are accursed.
    Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
    Out of the mouth of Plenty’s horn,
    Because of her opinionated mind
    Barter that horn and every good
    By quiet natures understood
    For an old bellows full of angry wind?

    Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
    The soul recovers radical innocence
    And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
    Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
    And that its own sweet will is Heaven’s will;
    She can, though every face should scowl
    And every windy quarter howl
    Or every bellows burst, be happy still.

    And may her bridegroom bring her to a house
    Where all’s accustomed, ceremonious;
    For arrogance and hatred are the wares
    Peddled in the thoroughfares.
    How but in custom and in ceremony
    Are innocence and beauty born?
    Ceremony’s a name for the rich horn,
    And custom for the spreading laurel tree.

  • If You Seek Recovery, Try a Brand, New Way to Live as the First day of Kwanzaa Begins – Step 9

    USEFUL WAYS TO BE – “We simply realize there is a force for spiritual growth that can help us become more tolerant, patient, and useful in helping others. Many of us have said, ‘Take my will and my life. Guide me in my recovery. Show me how to live.’ ” (The Basic Text, p. 26)

    “You can use your life in a very useful and intelligent way. You can very well transform that negative energy into a positive energy that empowers you and makes life meaningful.”

    – Thich Nhat Hanh (1926 – ) Vietnamese spiritual teacher/ author

     

    The Useful Seven Principles of Kwanzaa (10:18)

    Waterfall Serenity Meditation (8 HOURS)

    Unstoppable Extended Mix – Afrojack (5:43)

     

    What have you done to promote any one of the Kwanzaa spiritual principles of unity, self-determination, collective work, responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity or faith, lately?

     

     

    The Peacock and The Crane.

     

    T here was a peacock who often boasted about his beauty. Everyday he walked to the banks of a large lake and looked his own reflections and said “Oh! What a beautiful bird I am! Look at my colourful tail”.

    Once the peacock saw a crane on the banks of the lake. He said with a sneer to the crane, “What a colourless bird you are! You have no beautiful and colourful feathers like mine”.

    The crane replied, “Of course! I don’t have beautiful feathers. But, my feathers can make me fly across the lake. Can your feathers make you fly?” There was no reply from the peacock.  (http://www.english-for-students.com/The-Peacock-and-The-Crane-1.html)

     

    Zonr pod on useful

  • How an Open Hand and Mind Heals a Badly Wounded Soul – Step 9

    STILL, WE CAN LEARN HOW NOT TO RUIN OUR DAY IN ANGER – “It mattered little whether our resentments were justified or not. A burst of temper could spoil a day, and a well-nursed grudge could make us miserably ineffective.” (12 & 12, p. 90)

    “Anger in a home is like rottenness in fruit.”

    Talmud Sotah 3 (200 CE) central text of Rabbinic Judaism

     

    Two Secrets of the Torah to Free Yourself from Anger (2:32)

    Heartland – The The (5:17) 

    How have you handled anger and frustration in a way that resulted in a more positive outcome, lately?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLZV9xH4dYM

    Revenge of Fox :

    Once a hungry fox entered a village. He went near a field with large juicy pumpkins. He looked around and saw no one around. So he quickly bit into a pumpkin. Just as he finished eating it, the farmer whose field it was, rushed to him and said, “How dare you eat my pumpkin?”

    “Please sir, I was hungry and I ate just one of them.” But the angry farmer took a piece of cloth and dipped it in kerosene oil. Then he tied the oily cloth around the fox’s tail and lit a match to it. The fox’s tail was on fire and he was in pain. Now the fox was angry, “You are punishing me for just one pumpkin. Now it’s my time to take revenge.”

    The fox went to the wheat field that belonged to the same farmer. The ripe wheat was standing to be harvested. The fox jumped around the field with his burning tail. Immediately the crops caught fire and soon turned to ashes.

    The farmer thought, “If I had forgiven the fox’s small sin, he would not have caused such a huge damage to me.”  (http://www.english-for-students.com/Revenge-of-Fox.html)

     

    Zonr pod on anger

  • One Special Gift that can Heal the Deepest Wound; Especially when the Cause was Our Own – Step 9

     

    THE GREAT HEALER –

    ” … humility had
    brought strength out
    of   weakness.”   ” [And]
    pain had  been the  price of
    admission into a new life.”  “… 
    a measure  of  humility,  which
    we soon  discovered  to  be a
    healer of pain.  We began to
    fear  painless,  and desire
    humility more than ev-
    er.”   (12 & 12, p. 75)
    “If thou desire the
    love of God and man,
    be humble, for the proud
    heart, as it loves none but
    itself,  is  beloved  of  none
    but  itself.   Humility  en-
    forces  where   neither
    virtue, nor strength,
    nor reason can
    prevail. 
    Francis Quarles (1592 – 1644) English poet

     

    How has being a humble healer helped you feel better about a past mistake, lately?

     

     

    The Old Woman and The Healer :

    An old woman whose eyes were inflamed called in a healer and he told her that the eyesight would become faultless again, provided she would pay a very expensive fee for his services.

    She agreed and he insisted her to keep her eyes shut during the treatment at which time the healer stole all the old lady’s furniture.

    When he asked the woman for his fee, she refused to pay, so the healer took her to court. ‘It’s not true that he’s made my eyes better,’ the old lady told the judge.

    They have got worse. Before, I could see everything in my house, now I can’t see at all.’

     

    Zonr pod on healer

  • Rejoice in the Winter Solstice as We Dance in the Fleeting Light of Eternal Youth – Step 9

    DISCOVERING OUR INNER BEAUTY –  “The most important results of the Ninth Step will be found within ourselves. This step teaches us a great deal about humility, love, selflessness, and forgiveness. We begin to heal from our addiction and no longer live with as many regrets.” (It Works, How & Why, p. 67)

    “A man is not old until his regrets take the place of his dreams.”

    – Yiddish proverb

     

    How does selflessness play a role in your recovery, lately?

     

     

    Generosity :

    Mahatma Gandhi went from city to city, village to village collecting funds for the Charkha Sangh. During one of his tours he addressed a meeting in Orissa. After his speech a poor old woman got up. She was bent with age, her hair was grey and her clothes were in tatters. The volunteers tried to stop her, but she fought her way to the place where Gandhi was sitting.

    “I must see him,” she insisted and going up to Gandhi touched his feet.

    Then from the folds of her sari she brought out a copper coin and placed it at his feet. Gandhi picked up the copper coin and put it away carefully. The Charkha Sangh funds were under the charge of Jamnalal Bajaj.

    He asked Gandhi for the coin but Gandhi refused “I keep cheques worth thousands of rupees for the Charkha Sangh,” Jamnalal Bajaj said laughingly “yet you won’t trust me with a copper coin.”

    “This copper coin is worth much more than those thousands” Gandhi said. “If a man has several lakhs and he gives away a thousand or two, it doesn’t mean much.But this coin was perhaps all that the poor woman possessed. She gave me all she had. That was very generous of her. What a great sacrifice she made. That is why I value this copper coin more than a crore of rupees.”

    Overtook and forgive the weakness to generous people, because if they fall down, GOD gives his hand in their hands and helps them.

    Zonr Logo pod on selflessness

     

  • When the Heart is Clenched in a Fistful of Fear, There is but One Option Left – Step 9

    PRAY FOR PEACE –

    “Whenever we con-
    front a difficulty that
    we do not think we can
    handle, we ask God [or our
    Higher Power] to do for
    us   what  we  cannot
    do for ourselves.”
    (The Basic Text,

     

    “We receive His
    peace when we ask
    Him for it. We keep His
    peace by extending it to
    others. Those are the
    keys and there are
    no others.”

    – Marianne Williamson (1952 – ) U.S. spiritual author / speaker

     

    Ask Me – The Smiths (2:59)

     Selected Quotes from Marianne Williamson (1:45)

    Paradise Peace Garden – Sounds of Nature Meditation (6:15)

     

    What has caused you to desperately feel the need to pray for peace, lately?

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMY4W0l4peY

     

    A Town Mouse and A Country Mouse

    The Country Mouse one day invited his friend to come and see him at his home in the fields. The Town Mouse came and they sat down to a dinner of barleycorns and roots the latter of which had a distinctly earthy flavour.

     

    The flavour was not much to the taste of the guest and presently he broke out with “My poor dear friend, you live here no better than the ants. Now, you should just see how I fare! My larder is a regular horn of plenty. You must come and stay with me and I promise you shall live on the fat of the land.”

     

    So when he returned to town he took the Country Mouse with him and showed him into a larder containing flour and oatmeal and figs and honey and dates.

    …

    The Country Mouse had never seen anything like it and sat down to enjoy the luxuries his friend provided. But before they had well begun, the door of the larder opened and some one came in. The two Mice scampered off and hid themselves in a narrow and exceedingly uncomfortable hole. Presently, when all was quiet, they ventured out again. But some one else came in, and off they scuttled again. This was too much for the visitor. “Good bye,” said he, “I’m off. You live in the lap of luxury, I can see, but you are surrounded by dangers whereas at home I can enjoy my simple dinner of roots and corn in peace.”

     

    Zonr pod on peace

     

  • Do You Know What It is Your HP Wants Most for You? Step 9

    SOAKED IN PINK CLOUDS OF GLEE – “We’ve begun to see that God’s [or our Higher Power’s] will for us is the ability to live with dignity, to love ourselves and others, to laugh, and to find great joy and beauty in our surroundings.” (It Works, How & Why, p. 81) “It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy.”

    – Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) German philosopher

     

    Don’t Worry, Be Happy – Bobby McFerrin (4:04)

    Reiki Tantric Meditation for Happiness (9:43)

     

    What do you do or could you do to have more gratitude in your life?

     

     

    The Happy Man :

    Many, many years ago in North Africa there lived a chief. He was very rich and had many wives and children. But he was not happy. He thought, “I have everything. But that does not make me h.appy. What must I do to be happy? I don’t know.”

    Once he shouted angrily to his servants, “Why can’t I be happy? What must I do to be happy?”

    One of his servants said, “Oh, my Chief! Look at the sky! How beautiful the moon and the stars are! Look at them and you will see how good life is. That will make you happier.”

    “Oh, no, no, no!” the chief answered angrily. “When I look at the moon and the stars I become angry. Because I know I cannot get them.”

    Then another servant said, “Oh, my Chief! What about music?

    Music makes a man h.appy. We shall play to you from morning till night and music will make you happy. ”

    The chief’s face became red with anger. “Oh, no, no, no, no!” he cried. “What a silly idea. Music is fine. But to listen to music from morning till night, day after day? Never! No. Never!”

    So the servants went away. And the chief sat angrily in his rich room. Then one of the servants came back into the room and made a bow, “Oh, my Chief,” he said, “but I think I can tell you something that will make you very happy.”

    “What is it?” asked the chief.

    “It is very easy to do,” said ‘the servant. “You must find a h.appy man, take off his shirt and put it on. Then his happiness will go into your body and you will be as happy as he!”

    “I like your idea,” said the chief. He sent his soldiers all over the country to look for a happy man. They went on and on. But it was not easy to find a happy man in the chief’s country. But one day the soldiers found a man in a small village who said, “I am the happiest man in the world.”

    He was poor. But he always smiled and sang. The soldiers brought him to the chief. “At last I shall be a happy man!” said the chief and took off his shirt at once. “Bring the man in!” The door of the chief’s room opened. A small, dark man with a happ.y smile walked in.

    “Come here, my friend!” said the chief. “Please take off your shirt!” The happy man with a little smile came up to the chief. The chief looked at him and saw what did he see? The happ,y man, the happiest man in the world, had no shirt!  (http://www.english-for-students.com/The-Happy-Man.html)

     

     

    Zonr pod on happy

  • Making Amends for Our Most Repugnant Transgressions without Shame or Reservation – Step 9

    A “TRUE SPIRIT OF HUMILITY & LOVE” MENDS THE PANGS OF SHAME –  “… we ask ourselves if we are doing this because we are truly sorry and have a genuine desire to make reparations … . If we answer ‘yes’ to this question, we can be assured that we are approaching our amends in the true spirit of humility and love.” (It Works, How & Why, p. 62)

    “A man should never be ashamed to own he has been wrong, which is but saying, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”

    – Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) English translator of the Greek epic poem

     

    Shame – Evelyn Champagne King c. 1978 (3:36) 

    The Iliad – Book I LP (53:28)

    Subliminal Inner Child Healing Meditation (19:56)

     

    What happened when have you felt some shame and admit a terrible mistake to others, lately?

     

    Doctor Croaky :

    One day a frog left the pond of the village and hopped to a lake in a nearby forest. He went to the forest to make his new home there. When he reached there he did not see anyone around. He wanted to meet everyone and make new friends. So the frog climbed a high rock by the lake and said, “Friends, please come here. I am new here. I want to meet all of you. Because I have come from the village.”

    Many animals heard his voice and came to the lake. The deer, the tortoise, the duck, the rabbit, the birds, the squirrel, the butterfly and the fox came there. The frog said, “Let me introduce myself. I am Dr. Croaky. I am a doctor who can cure any ailment that you might be suffering from. I have medicines for all animals’ diseases. You can come to meet me anytime.”

    Hearing this, the fox said, “If you can cure everyone then why haven’t you cured your lame legs? See how you keep hopping around all the time.”

    All the animals and birds laughed at the frog. The frog went red with shame for his lie had been detected. (http://www.english-for-students.com/Doctor-Croaky.html)

  • A Good Way to Keep” the Pain Body, which is the Shadow Cast by Our Ego,” in Check – Step 9

    THE SHADOW OF OUR HUGE, HEAVY GUILT BEGINS TO FLOATS AWAY –  “Memories of the past no longer hold us back … .”  “We are free to dream and to pursue the fulfillment of our dreams.  Our lives stretch out before us like a limitless horizon.” (It Works, How & Why, p. 69)

    “The storms of the past are receding. The skies are brightening. And the horizon is beckoning once more.”

    – U.S. Pres. Barack Obama (1961 – ) Energy speech 12/8/09

     

    Eckart Tolle Brief Bio (2:51)

    This Wreckage – Gary Numan live (7:46)

    Eckhart Tolle Pain Body Meditation (6:22)

    When was the last time your own shadow ego rose up and caused you to be shocked by how much anger was seething underneath?

     

     

    The Dog and The Shadow :

    A big dog stole a piece of bone from a kitchen. It began to run very fast. It came to a stream. The stream was bridged by a plank. As he walked across the plank, he saw a very strange sight.

    The water in the stream was clear and quiet. It saw another dog with another bone in its mouth in the water.

    “Ho!…” said the dog.

    “What is this? Another dog with a piece of bone down in water? With a much bigger piece than mine! I will take it from the dog.”

    But the dog did not realize that the dog in the water was its own reflection.

    He opened its mouth to catch the piece of bone from the dog in the water.

    Alas! Down fell his own dinner with a loud splash…The gentle waving movement of the water cleared. The dog was staring up out of the water with empty jaws.

    It was his shadow that he saw all the time and the shadow of his piece of bone too.

    Zonr pod on the shadow